Lydia Hamessley, associate professor of music, recently published an article in Women and Music: A Journal of Gender and Culture (Winter, 2005). In the article, "A Resisting Performance of an Appalachian Traditional Murder Ballad: Giving Voice to 'Pretty Polly,'" Hamessley explores the way that contemporary musicians perform murder ballads, a genre that pervades southern Appalachian folk repertoire.
These songs challenge performers who do not want to imply indifference toward the fate of the murdered women of these misogynist and violent ballads. She concludes by analyzing one particular performance by The New Coon Creek Girls that is a model for reclaiming and performing this powerful repertoire in a traditional way that nonetheless gives voice to the woman's perspective.
